


You May Say I'm a Dreamer, But I'm Not the Only One

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Background Harry/Ginny, F/M, Goblet of Fire AU, Luna/Ginny Friendship, Yule Ball, background Ron/Hermione - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-20 08:43:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16133723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: He knows what it’s like to be on the outside. So does she.ORGoblet of Fire AU where Ginny and Luna have been best friends since first year and Ginny asks Neville to be Luna’s date to the Yule Ball.





	1. Ultimatum

Luna trusted her best friend with her life, she truly did. When it came to her love life however, she wasn’t so sure. 

She and Ginny had been best friends ever since their first year at Hogwarts, when Ginny had helped Luna get revenge on some fourth year Slytherins who’d been teasing her. After getting a little help from Fred and George, those fourth years hadn’t known what had hit them.

It was now early December of their third year, less than a month before the Yule Ball would take place. Ginny had already been asked by Seamus Finnigan, a fourth year Gryffindor who Luna didn’t know too well. She didn’t really understand why Ginny was going with him either. She’d made it clear to Luna that she wasn’t the least bit interested in him, and she suspected the reason for that was a certain Boy Who Lived. Still, she decided that it was best not to mention her friend’s obvious crush. Ginny, on the other hand, felt no such courtesy.

Ever since the school year had started, and Luna had said something to Ginny about how much Neville Longbottom had grown up over the summer, her friend had been teasing her relentlessly about her growing crush. Now, as they walked through Hogsmeade, going from shop to shop looking at dresses, Ginny brought it up once again.

“These dresses are all so amazing,” Ginny exclaimed as they walked into yet another shop. It seemed that every store in the village that sold clothes now had racks upon racks of ball gowns and dress robes in preparation for the upcoming ball. Ginny walked over to a rack near the back of the store and picked up a beautiful strapless gown. It was a pale shade of yellow, and had a huge tulle skirt that reminded Luna of a princess. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Yeah,” Luna sighed longingly, wishing that she could share in her friend’s joy of picking out beautiful dresses. “You would look absolutely incredible in that.”

“It’s not for me, silly, this colour would clash horribly with my hair. It’s for you.”

“Ginny, you know I’m not going. Third years can’t go unless they go with someone older, and we both know that nobody is going to ask me.”

Ginny just shook her head. “So why don’t you ask someone?”

“You know I can’t do that. Besides, who would I even ask?”

“I think you know exactly who you should ask,” Ginny said with a smirk. “He doesn’t have a date yet, and you two would be so perfect together!”

“I’m can’t just to go up to a fourth year and ask him to go to the Yule Ball with me,” she said. Although she very much wished she could, she wasn’t blind to what the other students thought of her, and she wasn’t sure she could deal with the rejection. 

“He’s not just any fourth year either, he’s a fourth year who you like,” Ginny teased. 

“Is that supposed to make me less nervous?” Luna asked incredulously.

She shrugged. “Not really, no.”

“Thanks.”

Ginny just smirked before walking over to the shop cashier, dress in hand, and asking something that Luna couldn’t hear from where she was standing. “Alright,” she said, returning, “the shop can keep this dress on hold for you for one week. So you have one week to ask Neville Longbottom to the Yule Ball, or else.”

“Or else what? Wrackspurts will start floating around in my ears?” Luna asked. Her voice wasn't sarcastic, only curious.

“Or else I’ll ask him for you.”

 

“I can’t believe this. Our school is hosting the Yule Ball, something that hasn’t happened in centuries, and I’m going to have to go by myself.”

Neville was sitting in the Gryffindor common room with Ron and Harry, all of them working on their essays for potions class. At least, they were supposed to be working on their essays, but they’d become preoccupied with discussing the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, and what the message inside the golden egg could possibly say. They’d started talking about the Yule Ball as well, and how Ron and Harry had already found dates. Neville, on the other hand, hadn’t. 

“Don’t give up on it yet,” Ron told him, “there’s still plenty of time left to find someone to go with.”

“Oh come on, you know just as well as I do that anybody who’s going already has a date,” Neville replied defeatedly.

“I mean, it is sort of a miracle that I got Parvati and her sister to go with us,” Harry agreed.

“Yeah, you’d think being best friends with the Boy Who Lived and the fourth champion in the Triwizard Tournament would get me a better date selection,” Ron grumbled.

“Please, you’re just upset that Hermione is already going with somebody,” Harry shot back.

Ron glared at him. “Am not. Besides, aren’t you the one that was too late to ask Cho?” 

Neville just sighed to himself. At least they had dates. 

 

Seven days later, Luna still hadn’t worked up the courage to ask Neville to the ball. In fact, she’d been so busy with her classes that she’d nearly forgotten all about her one week deadline. When Ginny found her in the library that night after dinner, she walked over to her with a triumphant grin. “I take it you haven’t asked Neville to the ball yet,” she commented, getting straight to the point as usual.

Luna shook her head. “No, I haven’t had the time.”

“Sure you haven’t. Well, a deal is a deal.”

“I believe that it was much more of an ultimatum than it was a deal,” Luna mused, but she knew it was useless.

“Well, I’m asking him for you tonight. You can thank me later.” Ginny smiled, pulling Luna into a quick hug, and then hurried away. 

Luna sighed, looking back down at her book, but she crossed her middle finger over her forefinger. It was possible that something good would come of this, and she really hoped that it did.

 

Neville was in the common room again that night, this time sitting alone by the fire and flipping through one of his herbology books. It was pretty late, and he was one of the only people still in the common room, so he didn’t expect Ginny to come barreling through the common room door at full speed and sit down in the armchair next to his. “Hey, Neville,” she said cheerily.

“Um, hey Ginny,” Neville replied cautiously. The grin that he saw on the youngest Weasley’s face was the same one he’d seen on Fred and George’s countless times, and it nearly always meant trouble. “What are you up to?”

She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Oh, nothing much.”

“Somehow I find that hard to believe.”

Ginny laughed. “Good call. You know my friend Luna, right?”

Neville nodded. He’d only spoken to her a few times, with her being a year younger than him and a Ravenclaw, but she was a nice girl. He, like practically everyone in the school, heard the cruel things that were said about her, and he hated it. He understood all too well how that could hurt someone, and yet Luna never seemed to pay it any mind. He admired that about her.

“Well, she has the biggest crush on you,” Ginny went on, “and she’s too shy to ask you to the Yule Ball, so I’m doing it for her. Are you in?”

Neville thought about it for a moment. He’d never thought it likely that anyone could have a crush on him, and it made him smile to know that someone like Luna did. He hesitated for a moment, knowing that with his luck the night would likely be a disaster, but then figured that it couldn’t hurt to try. “Alright,” he said, “I’m in.”


	2. The Yule Ball

“I can’t believe he actually said yes,” Luna said, not for the first time that day. Her and Ginny were back in Hogsmeade to pick up Luna’s dress, that was thankfully still there although they were a day late. The whole morning she’d seemed as though she was floating, even more than usual, that is.

“You not being able to believe something, now I think that’s a new one,” Ginny laughed as they walked out of the shop with their dresses. Ginny had settled on a gown in a beautiful shade of emerald that somehow made her red hair look even more fiery. “Either way, you’d better start believing it. There’s only ten days left before the ball.”

“So there is. My father wasn’t too thrilled when I told him I was staying at school for Christmas, he worries you see. But he wants me to have fun.”

After Ginny didn’t answer, Luna looked up to see that something had caught her eye. Following her line of sight, she saw that Harry, Ron and Hermione were walking by, presumably on their way to the Three Broomsticks. 

Luna and Hermione shared a knowing look as Ginny gazed longingly after Harry. Luna didn’t understand why neither of them would admit their feelings when it was clear to anybody who wasn’t them that the other felt the same.

 

Word travelled quickly around Hogwarts, and by dinner that night, everybody seemed to know about Neville going to the ball with Luna. 

“I can’t believe you’re taking Loony Lovegood to the Yule Ball,” Seamus snickered. The ends of his hair were still singed from a mishap in transfiguration the Friday before. 

“Don’t call her that,” Neville told him, his voice unusually sharp. “Besides, you’re taking Ginny, they’re best friends.”

“I’m only taking Ginny because I got turned down by nearly every witch in our year.”

“I wonder why,” Neville muttered, earning a laugh from Dean Thomas and a couple other people who were sitting nearby. It hurt him when people said mean things about Luna, he was no stranger to the feeling himself. 

The next ten days went by in a blur. The halls of Hogwarts were abuzz with students studying for N.E.W.T.s and O.W.L.s or racing to hand in last minute assignments. As such, Luna and Neville didn’t have much of a chance to talk, save for a quick hello when they passed each other in the corridor. 

When the night of the Yule Ball finally came, Neville was twice as nervous as he usually was for things, which was to say, very nervous indeed. He spent quite a long time adjusting his bowtie and fixing the collar of his dress robes, until Ginny came up the stairs to the boys’ dormitory to tell him that Luna was waiting for him in the common room. He took one last deep breath before following her downstairs, and the sight that awaited him was something that could surely put a Grecian goddess to shame. 

Luna looked absolutely angelic. Her pale blonde hair cascaded down her back in waves, and for the first time Neville noticed how impossibly long it was. The yellow of her dress was like the sun, and the silver of her eyes was like the moon, and Neville was certain that in that moment, she could control the rotation of the entire universe if she wished. He was so taken with her that he didn’t even notice Ginny leave the room. 

“Hello, Neville,” Luna said softly. 

“Uh, hey Luna,” Neville replied, nervously wiping his palms on his pants before holding out his arm to her. “Shall we?”

 

On the way to the ball, the two of them talked about their classes, and about the gifts they had gotten that morning, and Luna silently admired Neville. She thought he looked quite debonair in his black dress robes, and the white bow tie was a nice touch.

They finally arrived at the Great Hall to find that it had been entirely transformed.The walls of the Hall were covered in frost, and the ceiling depicted a starry midnight sky. One aspect of the decorations grabbed Luna’s attention more than the others, and Neville regarded her curiously as she studied a bunch of mistletoe.

“What are you doing?” Neville asked.

“Looking for Nargles. They hide in mistletoe, you know.” Luna’s words were very matter-of-fact, and Neville couldn’t help but laugh at her wide-eyed conviction. Luna could feel that he was laughing with her, and not at her, and that made her smile. 

“Come on, we should find a table, the feast is going to start soon.” Neville took Luna’s hand and led her over to one of the small, lantern-lit tables where Ginny and Seamus were sitting, along with Ron and Padma. 

None of them looked very entertained, and they were all staring off into space. Well, technically, both Ginny and Ron were staring more in the direction of the Champion’s table, where Harry and Hermione were sitting with their dates. 

“Harry doesn’t seem to be having a very good time either, you know,” Luna whispered, leaning over to Ginny so that only she could hear.

“Yeah,” Ginny replied with a defeated sigh.

“You should ask him to dance later,” Luna said, and her friend looked back at her as though she could see Wrackspurts floating about in her ears. “I mean it. What is it that you’re always telling me? Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve. And I know you do,” she added before focusing her attention back on Neville, who was saying something to Seamus and looking rather pleased with himself.

 

In the half hour or so it had taken them to get to the great hall and find their seats for the feast, Neville decided that he had definitely made the right decision taking Luna to the ball. Both of his friends looked like they would rather be anywhere else, and he and Luna seemed to be the only ones who were genuinely happy about the people they’d come to the ball with. 

Even Seamus was looking at Luna as though she were an entirely different person, a phoenix reborn from the ashes so to speak, and Neville felt no shame in smugly pointing that out. Just as he turned back to Luna, who had been talking to Ginny, Dumbledore rose from his seat at the front of the hall, and everyone went quiet.

“Welcome, welcome, staff, students, and our wonderful guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang,” he said, raising his golden goblet. “Tonight, in honor of our Triwizard champions, we celebrate the Yule Ball, an event that has not taken place in centuries. It is my hope that each of you will enjoy the night, as well as of course the feast prepared for us by our house elves.” 

With that, dishes of turkey and potatoes and all sorts of food appeared on the tables, and all of the students began to load their plates. “Would you like some peas?” Neville asked, holding out a bowl to Luna.

“Oh, no thank you,” she replied, shaking her head. “My mother always used to say that eating peas would turn your ears green.”

Neville couldn’t help but notice Luna’s choice of words. Always used to say. He could see the sadness in her eyes, a sadness that came from losing someone you loved, and he felt a pang of empathy for her. Sure, his parents weren’t dead, per se, but most days they didn’t remember that they were even his parents at all. “Well, we wouldn’t want that, now would we?” Neville said with a soft chuckle, setting down the bowl of peas. Luna Lovegood was an odd girl, that much was true, but Neville Longbottom was beginning to find that he didn’t mind that in the slightest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, they've made it to the ball, now things can really get started. I'll update as soon as I can! Xoxo, Lily

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed that! I've always loved Luna and Neville together, so when this idea came to mind I just had to write it. I can't wait to see what happens next! Xoxo, Lily


End file.
